Laura, I believe that your post, "...my understanding that the
environmentalists who conducted this study were trying to show how much
toxins we absorb and therefore prove that we have a long-long way to go
to "cleanup" the planet..the problem stems from the press, and the way
they have presented this research and the findings," has made me realize
the need to be more clear and accurate in my posts.  I was trying to
work from memory and that's not a very good thing to do.  My comments
reflect my reading a rather interesting book called, "Our Stolen
Future," by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers(A
Dutton Book,1996).  Theo Colborn is a senior scientist with the the
World Wildlife Fund and a recognized expert on endocrine-disrupting
chemicals.  Diane Dumanoski is a reporter from the Boston Globe.  And
John Myers has a Ph.D. in Zoology and formerly the Senior Vice President
for Science at the National Audubon Society. The premise of the book
seems to me to be the discovery that plastics are not inert ingredients
and that some chemicals from plastics are hormonally active. At one
point in the book they talk about the contamination of breast milk by
PCB's among the Inuit people in the Arctic.  According to the authors,
Canadian health officials told the villagers about the high level of
contamination found in their bodies.  The news that breast milk also
carrried these chemicals made one woman decide to stop nursing.  She
bottle fed her infant a mixture of water and Coffee-mate.  Yep, the baby
had to be hospitalized. No comment was made in the book about this kind
of tragedy brought on by fears of chemical contamination.  The book does
not advise against breastfeeding but I do believe that the way it is
presented leads one to believe that they believe cow's milk formula
safer. One of the many scary statistics they use about breastfeeding is
that in 6 months of breastfeeding a baby will receive the maximum
recommended lifetime dose of dioxin. Of interest or maybe not, Vice
President Al Gore wrote the foreword to the book. I would rcommend the
book because I hope you'll read it and write the authors with some good
comments.  I wrote them but I never got a response(not that I thought
they would respond).  I sent them the ILCA reprint on the risks of
formula.  Anyway, Laura, my comments were related to this book and their
use of the studies on the Great Lakes contamination.  Valerie W.
McClain, IBCLC

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